4thGenCal said:
eastcoastcal said:
4thGenCal said:
eastcoastcal said:
4thGenCal said:
Big C said:
Nice to see J-Kidd repping his Alma Mater. What with him being a HC, he's one of the few former Cal Basketball players -- besides Jaylen Brown -- that anybody under 30's ever heard of.
I'm far from a Fox Apologist, but did it occur to anyone that he might be recruiting in the greater Chicago area? The program is problematic, but the fact that he was at this game seems like about the smallest of our problems. He should be seen with Jason Kidd more, if anything, not less.
Accurate call Big C- Coach Fox was planning to be in Chicago for recruiting and also wanted to meet with some key members of the basketball's excellence club(key source of donations for the program). Smart and extra effort to meet with several alums and basketball backers (part of his responsibilities) and also show support for the football team and Coach Wilcox. Coach Fox has been very clear and said such at the dinner's he attended that Football success is paramount to the Athletic Dept and all Cal sports. I applaud his appearance at Chicago and the game. We collectively post discontent and frustration with the results under Coach Fox - but its important to also acknowledge that the effort level amongst the staff (recruiting, skill development and maintaining team chemistry) has been good. This is a critical season for Him and staff, as its certainly time to show significant improvement in wins and losses. Per Coach Fox, Newell is a big surprise in expectations they had as a freshman. He will definitely get solid minutes and has skills. Also Jalen while recovering from a serious mcl/acl surgery is making faster than expected progress - meaning a return by year end is possible. Far too early to have any accurate projections, but the expectation is that the team will be better than last year's team. Yes the outside shooting is a big question mark and can Lars give consistent output and be effective for 25 minutes and will the interior D be decent to good? However the depth is better, the team is long and athletic and will have 3 very good guards to interchange. Not saying its a first half of conf team at all, but the potential is there to be better than last season.
Do you think that another basement finish & poor recruiting class (for argument's sake lets say this means 9th or lower in conference and no recruits within top 150 or 125) makes Knowlton fire Fox? I get that Knowlton wasn't ready to do that this offseason, didn't want to be seen as having a short fuse, etc. I get it. I'm wondering if this year is the end of that leash and improvement and results in the wins and recruiting departments are expected.
Want to answer but I don't have a good feel for a response so just a guess - 11/12th place yes the HC is terminated....10th likely, better than that probably not. Several factors will go into the decision - but wins/losses are the key. Again its an extremely difficult job today with the NIL and ability to essentially buy players. Cal presently does not have the monies raised (for basketball) that will swing a top recruit who literally will not step on campus for a recruiting trip, if there is not the expectation of a $100k+ payment for signing up. Cal needs to find the diamonds in the rough those overlooked (Grant Newell ie) and also find those players that qualify academically. These challenges are far tougher than the vast majority of basketball followers of Cal realize. Its simply not a level playing court. Yet it is possible certainly, to record better season won/loss performances than we have seen over the past 6 seasons.
Makes sense. I actually took a look at 247 recruiting rankings, it seems like the Prolific Prep program has a couple top players we did not offer. I assume GPA an issue? In any case best of luck with fundraising efforts. How much would it take to land, say, 2 top players (top 50 or something in that ballpark). 300k? more?
The PP players we did not offer were not academically eligible. Top 100 players easily would be offered $100k-$200k range, while a top 50 player likely $250K+
Wow ok. I can understand the difficulty. I can also understand between the practice facility, NIL, and coaching salaries, it likely is pretty difficult to raise necessary funds to make this a competitive program. kudos. I also hope you can break the cycle of poor results meaning less booster enthusiasm which in turn funds worse results. Wish I could think of a way to jumpstart the program. Are international kids eligible for NIL? Do they command less $? Just spitballing. Or maybe the only way around the high NIL bar is to get a coach who can churn out NBA picks via featuring them in a high-octane offense. The pitch being that hey, you won't make as much here at Cal but we'll get you to the NBA where you can make comparatively way more. Idk. Easier said than done. Its a tough spot, thanks for illuminating all this.
You've mentioned all the work you're doing to help with housing for the MBB players. Seriously wondering- rather than you and other boosters going in and say, spending like 2 mil in real estate costs, is it a more compelling pitch to divvy that 2 mil up and pay 8 top-50 players? Will the lack of housing matter if they're being given a 250k check? Just brainstorming. I know paying 8 players likely has far less long-term payoff than housing.
Thanks again and consider maybe making a monthly post or something about any updates or developments in the program. You're pretty much the only substance-filled news I get. It's the whole reason I joined BI, to get news and updates on our sports programs. Football does a great job with that. Unfortunately, Fox provides almost nothing. So I do truly appreciate your information.
